New Pollution Rules Set for Trucks, Buses

The Clinton administration has approved new
regulations that are expected to cut air pollution from heavy-duty
trucks and buses by more than 90 percent over the next decade.

Attacking one of the major sources of dirty air, the federal
standards will require new large trucks and buses to meet stringent
tailpipe emission limits and direct refiners to produce virtually
sulfur-free diesel fuel.

The rules were announced today by the White House and
the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a flurry of
regulations being churned out in the last days of the Clinton
administration and crafted to head off challenge by an incoming
Bush administration.

”Today’s action will dramatically cut harmful air pollution,”
EPA Administrator Carol Browner said at a news conference
announcing the new rules.

President Clinton, in a statement, said the new emission
controls “will prevent not only the thick plumes of diesel exhaust
all too familiar to motorists, but also thousands of cases of
respiratory illness and premature deaths.”

Republicans Criticize Rules

While President-elect Bush has not expressed any views on the
truck rules, some Republicans in Congress have criticized the new
sulfur requirements for diesel fuel.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.,
has vowed to push legislation that would roll back the diesel rule
next year, arguing the requirements could lead to fuel shortages.

Browner said she hoped the incoming Bush administration would
not delay the new requirements, which begin to go into effect in
2006.

Environmentalists, who have eagerly awaited the EPA truck and
diesel regulations since they were proposed last May, expressed
doubt they would be overturned given the widespread public
sentiment against trucks belching black smoke from their
smokestacks.

“This is the biggest vehicle pollution news since the removal
of lead from gasoline,” said Richard Kassel, an attorney for the
Natural Resources Defense Council and head of a campaign to reduce
truck pollution.

The rules apply to new trucks and replacement truck engines sold
beginning in late 2006. It is expected to take at least a decade
beyond that for the cleaner trucks to replace most of the current
fleet. Still, the pollution reductions eventually will be equal to
removing 13 million trucks from the road, according to various
estimates.

The Rules

To meet the more stringent emission standards, heavy-duty trucks
will, for the first time, be equipped with pollution
controls that capture exhaust chemicals—similar to the catalytic
devices that have been required on cars for years.

At the same time, 80 percent of the diesel fuel sold nationwide
will have to be virtually sulfur free — on average 15 parts per
million of sulfur—by 2006.

All diesel will have to meet the new requirement by 2010.

EPA officials have maintained that the ultra-low sulfur diesel is essential for the new pollution control
equipment to work properly.

The new standards anticipate about a 95 percent reduction of
smog-causing nitrogen oxide, compared to levels already expected to
be achieved from trucks by 2004, and a 90 percent reduction in
microscopic soot.

Diesel soot, which has been associated with increased asthma,
bronchitis and heart disease, as well as possibly cancer, has been
of special concern to health specialists. A recent study at the
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found a link between exposure
to microscopic soot and death rates in 20 large cities.